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Count Chocula posted:You want obsolete? I watch TV using a rabbit ear antenna connected to a digital set top box. I constantly need to adjust them to get a clear signal, and a few channels don't come in some days. I live alone and don't want to pay for cable, but barely any Australians have cable anyway. Everyone still watches network TV, and if you have digital you get something like 14 channels. Some of them were added in the last year! I think the whole country is switching over to digital soon. Talk about culture shock! I thought stories about only having 4 channels were made up to scare kids. Now we have stations like Seven1, Seven2, SevenMate. Ten, One (Sports), OneHD. Uhhh.... Like four or five SBS things, and four or five ABC stations too. I think Nine has two, I dunno, gently caress Nine. Count Chocula posted:Instead of using clothes dryers most people hang clothes on 'hills hoists', spinning clothes hangers Aussies are very proud of inventing.
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Nov 18, 2012 17:53
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tacodaemon posted:I keep hoping urban hipsters will bring back those pulley-style clotheslines that were once such a symbol of city life that they made it onto this NYC postcard from 1904 (and countless Warner Bros. cartoons). I'm sure they had tons of these in Williamsburg then. Uh, a lot of the boroughs still look like this today. Manhattan itself doesn't (although some parts on the UWS probably have clotheslines), but I see clotheslines all the time in Queens & Brooklyn - there's alleyways in my neighborhood that are just FULL of clotheslines. Remember, it's still uncommon to have a washer and dryer in your apt in NYC; laundromats are a Thing here. Most apartments also don't have dishwashers - I do all my dishwashing by hand; I've had to do so since I moved here at 18, as no place I've ever lived has had one, nor have my friends' places. I also hang-dry all my clothes in my bathroom - saves money & time at the laundromat, keeps my clothes in better condition. You can still find this stuff, you just have to find the working people.
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Nov 18, 2012 17:54
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I hang-dry my work clothes inside because I live in the Pacific northwest and they'd get wetter if I tried to hang them outside (also stolen since I live in the city). Dryers wreck clothes fast. This is the first time I've heard of gas dryers too. My city has plentiful cheap hydroelectric power from nearby dams, and nearly the whole city was built post-1960s, so everything tends to be electric.
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Nov 18, 2012 18:31
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leidend posted:I hang-dry my work clothes inside because I live in the Pacific northwest and they'd get wetter if I tried to hang them outside (also stolen since I live in the city). Dryers wreck clothes fast. Gas dryers are very common even in the Pacific Northwest. (SE WA here) You can't go to a Home Improvement store without tripping over gas appliances.
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Nov 18, 2012 19:20
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Count Chocula posted:You want obsolete? I watch TV using a rabbit ear antenna connected to a digital set top box. I constantly need to adjust them to get a clear signal, and a few channels don't come in some days. I live alone and don't want to pay for cable, but barely any Australians have cable anyway. Everyone still watches network TV, and if you have digital you get something like 14 channels. Some of them were added in the last year! I think the whole country is switching over to digital soon. Talk about culture shock! I thought stories about only having 4 channels were made up to scare kids. Just over 30 years ago, the UK only had three channels. I personally remember Channel 4 launching and watching the first ever edition of Countdown. My mother, who is 60 in April, remembers when BBC2 launched in 1964, and my stepfather at 63 is just old enough to remember when the UK had only one TV station, ITV having launched in 1955.
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Nov 18, 2012 19:24
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Jedit posted:Just over 30 years ago, the UK only had three channels. I personally remember Channel 4 launching and watching the first ever edition of Countdown. My mother, who is 60 in April, remembers when BBC2 launched in 1964, and my stepfather at 63 is just old enough to remember when the UK had only one TV station, ITV having launched in 1955. I remember channel 5 launching and being excited about it only to discover I lived in an area where it wasn't available, even Freeview has only just been made available in my town in the last year so we've been stuck with 4 terrestrial channels or SKY. It's not like I live in a remote area either....
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Nov 18, 2012 20:31
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Gaz2k21 posted:I remember channel 5 launching and being excited about it only to discover I lived in an area where it wasn't available, even Freeview has only just been made available in my town in the last year so we've been stuck with 4 terrestrial channels or SKY.
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Nov 18, 2012 21:07
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I grew up in Florida, and my dad was pretty cheap (despite making six figures before taxes) so we never had cable because it was "a useless expense". This was the 90's and early 00's and I was the only person I knew who couldn't watch Dexter's Lab and all that on a regular basis, I had to stick to Fox/WB Pokeymans ripoffs. Being an engineer, my dad erected a small tower and got this fancy rotating directional antenna for us to use (all of which likely cost more than just getting basic cable or satellite for a few years but GODDAMNIT MAN THERE'S FREE TV IN THE AIR!) so we actually got something like 20 channels, with only ~6 of them worth watching at all. Among the channels we got:
Now living on my own I don't even have a TV because Netflix is a thing that has all the shows I missed as a kid and many more 
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Nov 18, 2012 21:16
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JayKay posted:I still use a Logitech trackball with my laptop if I'm on the couch or bed and don't have a decent mousing surface. These were pretty decent but the worst part is having to flip it over, take out 3 or 4 screws and basically pull it all apart just to clean the contacts for the trackball. Some other ones actually had a ring that twisted and snapped in place (just like old ball mice) so you could take the trackball out from the top side and clean it more easily. I still remember playing Doom and Quake with my friends online and owning them hard with the trackball once I got used to it 
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Nov 18, 2012 21:17
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Ozz81 posted:These were pretty decent but the worst part is having to flip it over, take out 3 or 4 screws and basically pull it all apart just to clean the contacts for the trackball. Some other ones actually had a ring that twisted and snapped in place (just like old ball mice) so you could take the trackball out from the top side and clean it more easily. I still remember playing Doom and Quake with my friends online and owning them hard with the trackball once I got used to it My brother had one of those, and all you had to do to get the ball out was push it up through a hole in the bottom.
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Nov 18, 2012 21:23
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Ozz81 posted:These were pretty decent but the worst part is having to flip it over, take out 3 or 4 screws and basically pull it all apart just to clean the contacts for the trackball. Some other ones actually had a ring that twisted and snapped in place (just like old ball mice) so you could take the trackball out from the top side and clean it more easily. I still remember playing Doom and Quake with my friends online and owning them hard with the trackball once I got used to it Eh? You just pull the ball out and clean away. No screws or rings.
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Nov 18, 2012 22:28
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Test patterns. Instead of infomercials, television stations used to run test patterns, which also could be used to calibrate sets. This one, from Baltimore, shows a station co-owned by a newspaper.  Also in these days, it wasn't unheard of for stations to cherry pick programs from across different networks as there wasn't much television competition. This station, WALB-TV in Albany, was the first in its area and being the only station, it could pretty much whatever it wanted. In this case, it could be cheap and was probably the third priority for its owner, who also controlled the city's radio station (also WALB) and the daily newspaper. 
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Nov 19, 2012 00:30
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Flipperwaldt posted:I may be missing some intricacies of the UK situation or misunderstand your timing, but I've been watching British channels for almost four years now on satellite. Subscription free. From Belgium, of all places. This is possibly the thing called Freesat? So I think you could have had more than four channels earlier, is my point. Except in some places like where I live, freeview was only made available earlier this year and we never received channel 5 via terrestrial aerial just bbc1,bbc2,itv and channel4.
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Nov 19, 2012 00:49
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leidend posted:I don't even know what a hands crossed grip is. That epyx set up was very natural to me. My favorite controller is the Genesis 6-button controller. The type 2 Saturn controller was the closest thing to it and should have shipped with the system instead of the other one.  leidend posted:I hang-dry my work clothes inside because I live in the Pacific northwest and they'd get wetter if I tried to hang them outside (also stolen since I live in the city). Dryers wreck clothes fast. I'm in a suburb of New York City and have an electric dryer and oil heating. Seems kinda weird compared to the rest of the country. I'd love to see a regional distribution of clothes-drying methods. edit: vvv Thank you very much! Eddie Whitson has a new favorite as of 02:04 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 01:56
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I found some statistics from Energy Star:quote:As of 2009, almost 80% of U.S. households have a clothes dryer. Approximately 80% of the installed base of clothes dryers in U.S. households are electric, while the remaining are gas dryers. The mix of electric dryers and gas dryers has remained relatively stable, with electric dryers experiencing just over 2% increase in household penetration over the last decade.
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Nov 19, 2012 02:02
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They're still around but are generally used internally for calibrating colour and gamma levels. My grandmother's diaries have a bit where she writes about getting a TV really early on and her sons being enthralled by test patterns. In Australia, during the 90's you were more than likely to have landed on SBS (or channel 8 as we informally assigned it) where due to barely any content you were greeted with this test card and some music playing along with a bit of text scrolling across that either informed you of what was playing or other information.
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Nov 19, 2012 03:31
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RoleModel posted:The type 2 Saturn controller was the closest thing to it and should have shipped with the system instead of the other one. 
Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 03:41 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 03:39
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TShields posted:Ugh, yeah, gently caress using a trackball in AutoCAD. I can see how it would work if you got REALLY good with it, but I'll take a nice high DPI mouse any day. We don't call that a mouse in AutoCAD! We call it a digitizer! I think I started on AutoCAD R12. I preferred the command line, of course. 
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Nov 19, 2012 04:13
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WebDog posted:In Australia, during the 90's you were more than likely to have landed on SBS (or channel 8 as we informally assigned it)... I think you mean channel 28  I still remember a  letter in the newspaper explaining how if you added up the numbers of our main TV channels (2, 7, 9 & 10) it came to 28 which is the number of the 5th channel, SBS. I can't remember what the writer's point was but I'm sure it involved the illuminati in some way.
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Nov 19, 2012 04:33
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SHAM BAM BAMINA posted:Huh. You seem to have both made a bizarre typo and accidentally linked to the wrong image. Got that fucker with NiGHTS, still have it and refuse to let anyone else use it when I break out the ol' sanic games and such
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Nov 19, 2012 04:54
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Fozaldo posted:Eh? You just pull the ball out and clean away. No screws or rings. Weird, the one I had, I couldn't get the trackball out from the top - maybe it was the design or whatever, but I swear it was too snug and overlapped the edge of the trackball just enough to keep it from being popped out. No hole in the bottom to push it out either, maybe I can find the old beast buried somewhere and see if there was an easier trick to getting the ball out without dismantling the whole thing...
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Nov 19, 2012 05:22
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0toShifty posted:We don't call that a mouse in AutoCAD! We call it a digitizer! I think I started on AutoCAD R12. I preferred the command line, of course. Weren't these absolute positioning devices that you used with something like a Wacom style tablet? You could digitize off an actual drawing...
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Nov 19, 2012 07:15
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Ozz81 posted:These were pretty decent but the worst part is having to flip it over, take out 3 or 4 screws and basically pull it all apart just to clean the contacts for the trackball. Some other ones actually had a ring that twisted and snapped in place (just like old ball mice) so you could take the trackball out from the top side and clean it more easily. I still remember playing Doom and Quake with my friends online and owning them hard with the trackball once I got used to it Fuckin' a right. I was king poo poo with a Microsoft Trackball Explorer and I'd still be using one today if they weren't discontinued. We're not the only ones who think so, either. Those things in new condition can fetch hundreds of dollars nowadays.
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Nov 19, 2012 07:55
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Preheated Toast posted:Fuckin' a right. I was king poo poo with a Microsoft Trackball Explorer and I'd still be using one today if they weren't discontinued. We're not the only ones who think so, either. Those things in new condition can fetch hundreds of dollars nowadays. My co-worker has one sitting in a drawer, unused. He's put it on Ebay with no takers... Are you interested in it?
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Nov 19, 2012 08:09
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:I found some statistics from Energy Star: I listened to the AusPol thread and hung my clothes out to dry, and now its raining and my clothes are ruined. Guess clotheslines are obsolete for a reason.
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Nov 19, 2012 08:12
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If water ruins your clothes, then you shouldn't have been washing them in water in the first place. 
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Nov 19, 2012 08:16
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Count Chocula posted:now its raining and my clothes are ruined Hell, that's just an extra rinse. It won't ruin them, I've been drying clothes on the balcony for years. Web Dog posted:My grandmother's diaries have a bit where she writes about getting a TV really early on and her sons being enthralled by test patterns. 1974. I'd watch the test pattern. COLOUR TELEVISION! 
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Nov 19, 2012 08:22
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For some reason most stations shut off after around 1am, so I watch Weather Watch (the weather, with music) or a blank screen. One station shuts off at 8! Living in the past is interesting.
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Nov 19, 2012 08:29
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A yes, the good old Philips PM5544 was very popular right around the world, almost every TV station in Australia used them at one point. Older test cards, like the famous "Indian Head" were generated with a monoscope. A CRT tube with a metal plate permanently sealed inside with the image etched with phosphor. It produced the image electronically by scanning the plate. Like a camera that could only shoot one thing. They were black and white only.   Before electronically generated colour patterns like the Philips were invented, cards like the classic BBC Test Card F were produced by literally pointing a camera at a card.
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Nov 19, 2012 13:03
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axolotl farmer posted:That's a Kempston stick, and they ruled for C64/Spectrum gaming. Very distinct and it clicked when you moved it. I had a pair of those and they were loving indestructible, they survived all manner of heavy use and abuse through the most intense of my pre-teen/teen-age gaming years, C64 through Amiga.
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Nov 20, 2012 11:01
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Ron Burgundy posted:
This is how I thought it was done all the time!  Thank you Ron Burgundy, you have expanded my mind. This thread continues to be awesome.
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Nov 22, 2012 00:36
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Groke posted:I had a pair of those and they were loving indestructible, they survived all manner of heavy use and abuse through the most intense of my pre-teen/teen-age gaming years, C64 through Amiga. Indestructible was this monster.  I had a couple of those and they worked no matter how many times my brother threw them. They were also so stiffly sprung that using them for more than an hour or so left your hands sore.
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Nov 22, 2012 00:54
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einTier posted:Indestructible was this monster. Got one of these babies in a lot of C64 stuff I bought a few months ago. Definitely a tough little stick!
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Nov 22, 2012 01:00
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einTier posted:Indestructible was this monster. Oh wow, the first videogame I ever played was on a C64 using that stick, you just brought back tons of memories
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Nov 22, 2012 01:18
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einTier posted:Indestructible was this monster. You forgot to mention that the insides were metal with bolts and everything and the whole joystick weights almost half a pound. You could hurt someone with that beast.
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Nov 22, 2012 02:09
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jink posted:My co-worker has one sitting in a drawer, unused. He's put it on Ebay with no takers... Are you interested in it? Explorer or Optical? I love my Optical, and have one at work and at home. Nobody else can manipulate it, but I can't live without it. 
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Nov 22, 2012 04:04
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Before my oldschool Trackball Explorer died, I LOVED IT for doing stuff with my old laptop. Not gaming, but like taking my laptop around and doing network management with it [it was my only laptop with a serial port, and I didn't have a USB->Serial thingy yet]. Trackballs require only their footprint worth of space, which is nice when space is limited. You can use it against your leg, even! A good device.
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Nov 22, 2012 07:21
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Along these lines, a few years ago I was looking for one of those old tiny trackballs that would slide into the edge of a laptop keyboard and hang off the side and couldn't find any still being made. Granted, they're likely never coming back, either, but I think I would have preferred to have one for some laptop gaming compared to a trackpad or the eraser nub thing. But in the late 90s, they seemed to be fairly popular, or at least available at just about every retail outlet out there.
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Nov 22, 2012 08:52
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 As a kid, when I'd play games on my dad's desktop, I played them with one of these. It was absolutely huge to my little kid hands, good memories of playing stuff like Megarace with it. I can't imagine playing a game with a trackball now.
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Nov 22, 2012 09:48
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No love for the Microsoft Easyball?
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Nov 22, 2012 09:58
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